Due to artistic differences and Scottish parsimony (it costs two dollars to take the subway downtown), Steven Daly was not able to make it to WNYC’s Soundcheck program with John Schaefer. But David Kamp did, joing Mr. Schaefer to discuss Rhino’s newish 1990s box set entitled Whatever and whether Nineties retrospectivism is a valid pursuit at this relatively early date. If you missed it, you can have a listen here.

Film Snobbery

Food Snobbery

Wine Snobbery

Kraftwerk. Acutely German, acutely secretive inventors of “robot rock” (their preferred term), a highly mechanized dance-pop heavy on synthesizers, vocoders, and lyrics about robots, computers, trains, and bicycles. Founded in Düsseldorf in the late ’60s by the KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN-influenced art students Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, Kraftwerk effectively invented electronic pop music with their five albums released between 1974 and 1981, Autobahn, Radioactivity, Trans-Europe Express, The Man Machine, and Computerworld, all the while toying with Teutonic stereotypes by appearing in photographs as waxen, short-haired, emotionless mannequins. Hütter and Schneider have since become semi-recluses, infrequently releasing albums and playing live, though it’s said that they beaver away at their Düsseldorf studio, KlingKlang, on a daily basis.